MCQ Questions

Questions

Practice mode — a mixed feed of questions and articles for each subject. Prefer reading first? Browse the Articles index instead →

Articles

Study mode — the full article library for each subject, no practice questions mixed in. Want to practice instead? Browse Questions by subject →

C.D. Deshmukh: From RBI Governor to Finance Minister

One man led India’s central bank, then its Finance Ministry. He resigned from the second job on principle, not scandal.

📑 Contents

Chintaman Dwarkanath Deshmukh was born on 14 January 1896, near Fort Raigad, in the Bombay Presidency.
In 1918, he topped the Indian Civil Service Examination, held that year only in London.
He joined the Reserve Bank of India in 1939, rising through Secretary and Deputy Governor before becoming Governor.
On 11 August 1943, he became the RBI’s first Indian Governor, serving until 30 June 1949.
In 1944, he represented India at the Bretton Woods Conference, which created the IMF and the World Bank.
He served as India’s Finance Minister from 29 May 1950 to 24 July 1956, presenting six budgets and one interim budget.
He resigned as Finance Minister over the government’s proposal to split Bombay State into Gujarat and Maharashtra.

At Bretton Woods, he argued India should walk out over its IMF voting-quota representation. John Maynard Keynes reportedly recommended him as the IMF’s first Managing Director, though the US rejected the idea.
He was the first Finance Minister to become an ex-officio member of the Planning Commission, a convention that continued after him.
After leaving the Cabinet, he chaired the University Grants Commission (1956-1961), then served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi (1962-1967).
He founded the India International Centre in 1959, and served as its Life President.
He received a knighthood in 1944, and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 1959.
In 1975, he and his wife Durgabai Deshmukh both received the Padma Vibhushan.

Don’t conflate his two very different top jobs. RBI Governor (1943-1949) meant running India’s central bank. See IndEco0172 — Reserve Bank of India for that institution’s own fuller story. Finance Minister (1950-1956) was a separate, later, political Cabinet post.
In 1953, he married Durgabai Deshmukh, a leading social worker and Constituent Assembly member. See ModHist0247 — Durgabai Deshmukh for her own remarkable story. His first wife, Rosina Wilcox, had died in 1949, after a marriage of nearly three decades.
His 1956 resignation is a genuine case of a senior minister quitting on principle, over a specific policy disagreement about India’s internal state boundaries. This is worth distinguishing from more common “forced out” resignation narratives.
For the figure who chaired India’s first Finance Commission, a separate body from the Finance Ministry itself, see IndEco0188 — K.C. Neogy.